Spain at the forefront of immunotherapy for blood tumors

current situation immunotherapy in Spain is one of the noticeable problems in the scientific program National Congress of Hematology, Hemotherapy, Thrombosis and Hemostasis#Hemato2024, which just took place in Palma de Mallorca, organized by the Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy (SEHH) and the Spanish Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis (SETH).

Experts such as Paula Rodriguez from the University of Navarra Clinic emphasized positive impact of immunotherapy in patients for whom traditional treatments have been exhaustedwith a significant improvement in quality of life. However, he also warned that The challenge of making these treatments available to everyone remains to be achieved.

In fact, he believes that “there is an urgent need to expand access so that more patients can benefit.”

Leire Bento from the Son Espace University Hospital in Palma de Mallorca made an appeal. advances of this type during treatment diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (LDCBG), non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma more frequent.

This Aggressive immune cell cancers require precise targeting based on their molecular profile.. “Identifying molecular changes in this lymphoma allows for a more personalized approach, optimizing first-line treatment strategies,” explains Bento. Additionally, the expert highlighted how the introduction of advanced treatments, including immunotherapies such as CAR-T therapy or bispecific antibodies, has significantly improved response and survival rates in patients who do not respond to traditional treatments.

What is immunotherapy?

This is not one course of treatment, but a comprehensive one. group of different treatments

which are based on an idea boost the immune system to detect and destroy cancer cells. The immune system consists of white blood cells, as well as organs and tissues of the lymphatic system.

In fact, it is the immune system that protects us from infections, as well as eliminates altered cells, such as cancer cells. However, cancer (like bacteria when they become resistant to antibiotics) “learns” to evade the immune system.

Although immunotherapy is a new strategy, it is based on research that is over a century old. One of the first indications that the immune system had some effect on cancer was the observation that some people with incurable tumorsHE showed improvement after an infection caused by bacteria.

Immunotherapy-based treatment is not a cancer treatment per se, but strategies to enhance the action of the immune system on tumors.

Some types of immunotherapy monoclonal antibodies (one of the substances that produce cells of the immune system against tumor proteins), vaccines against viruses that are associated with any type of cancer (such as human papillomavirus), immune checkpoint inhibitors (which suppress some of the cancer’s strategies to evade the action of defense cells), and cell therapies (which use the patient’s own cells and enhance them).